Dialog Box
Creating lens flares using Fireworks
Table of Contents
Creating a lens flare with the Star Auto Shape
The first lens flare I'll show you isn’t necessarily the most complex, but it will advance your lens flares skills. The best part is you can update the number of points, sizing, Live Filters, or color values any time by modifying just one symbol.
To create a lens flare with the Star Auto Shape:
- Create a new document in Fireworks.
- Set both the width and height to 500px, and set the canvas color to #000000.
- In the Vector section of the toolbox, select the Star Auto Shape and then create a shape in the middle of the canvas.
- Select the shape, and then click and drag the lower-left yellow node upwards until the shape has 20 points (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: A star shape with 20 points
- Locate the top-center node and lengthen all the points to the edges of the canvas.
- Pull the center node towards the middle of the canvas to decrease the diameter of the star shape (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Pull the center node to decrease the diameter.
- Select the shape, and then add a radial gradient with #FFFFFF as the center color fading into a #FFFFFF transparency. Select Fill Options from the Fill color chip to select Gradient, and then select Radial as the gradient type (see Figure 3).
- Adjust the flare's gradient fill handles so the flare tips slightly disappear into the void (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Create a gradient that fades from white to transparent.
- Select the flare and press F8 to convert it into a Graphic symbol, and then name the symbol Flare001.
- Select the symbol and duplicate it using copy and paste.
- Select the top flare and click the Filters: [+] button in the Property inspector to add a Live Filter. Choose Blur > Gaussian Blur and drag the pointer to 11.0.
- In the Layers panel, name the bitmaps accordingly: Flare and Flare blurred.
- Swap the two bitmaps so the blurred flare is on the bottom.
- Select Duplicate Layer from the Layers panel options menu to duplicate both bitmaps on layer 1.
- Make the duplicated sets of flares 60% smaller than the original flares. Select both of the bitmaps and press Ctrl+T to transform the size.
- With the bitmaps still selected, rotate the flares so the points show in the middle of the points of the larger flares.
- Decrease the transparency level on the set of smaller flares to 40%.
Figure 4: Rotate, resize, and change the transparency of the second set of flares.
To change the amount of flare points, open the Flare001 symbol in the Library panel and modify the flare shape there. When you click Done, Fireworks adjusts all the flares accordingly.
